Cryptoses choloepi: A Coprophagous Moth That Lives on a Sloth
Abstract
The larvae of the sloth moth, Cryptoses choloepi, live in the dung of the three-toed sloth. Bradypus infuscatus. Adult female moths apparently leave the fur of the sloth to oviposit when the sloth descends, once a week, to the forest floor to defecate. Newly emerged moths fly from the dung pile into the forest canopy to find a sloth.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- July 1976
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.193.4248.157
- Bibcode:
- 1976Sci...193..157W